‘Travels with Darley’ Treks to Broadcast, from AOL to PBS

The digital video space has become the hot downtown club where all the trendsetters hang out, but broadcast is still the big time. So it’s still a significant when a streaming show such as “Travels with Darley” makes the leap to linear TV.

Today, it was announced that the series, which debuted on AOL in Feb. 2014, is coming to PBS stations next month with eight half-hours episodes that have host Darley Newman traveling to the Caribbean, Europe and across the U.S. and hooking up with locals to get the inside scoop on the sights, sounds, tastes, aromas and adventures to be experienced in each locale. The show will also continue as a short-form series on AOL, with new episodes each week, averaging 1.5 to 3.5 minutes each.

“The PBS series is newly filmed footage,” Newman told VideoInk. “We are then taking content we shoot while filming for the broadcast series and reediting to fit what we’re seeing work best in short form online for travel. Compilation clips and listicles are always good and fun for viewers online, but we also shorten and rewrite and reedit content that appears in the series in some form for online viewers. The channel on AOL also gives us the chance to showcase and utilize content that we filmed that maybe didn’t make it into the version for PBS. “

“Travels with Darley” is produced by DCN Creative, founded by Newman, a five-time Emmy nominee, and Chip Ward, who executive produces the series. It’s not their first online to broadcast incubation. In 2006, they launched the series “Equitrekking” on an online video channel, and it has gone on to broadcast 35 episodes (and counting) on PBS stations. Additionally, the show has aired on networks in over 85 countries, as well as on in-flight, restaurant and hotel networks, and spawned a series of travel websites.

“You have to reach people in a variety of mediums to succeed,” said Ward in a statement. For “Travels With Darley,” “We’re using what we’ve learned from launching what many considered to be a niche travel series, ‘Equitrekking,’ into a global series and successful brand. We apply what we are continually understanding about producing and monetizing digital shorts online to innovate in the marketplace.”